Minecraft Chicken Coop

One of my minecraft traps seemed to capture a lot of chickens. So I modified it so they had an escape route from the trap which lead right to my .... chicken coop!

It's just above basement rocks and generates rather a lot of clucking noises, dancing chickens and more importantly eggs. Roll on the day the eggs become edible!



Minecraft Chicken Coop

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A field of mushrooms near Windy Nook , Gateshead

On a lunchtime stroll from work (QE Hospital, Gateshead) I found an open access field covered in clusters of at least 4 different mushrooms.

Common Inkcaps (Coprinus atramentaria). This is the one all the books warn about. Technically it is edible, but if you have any trace of alcohol in your system this muchroom will cause very unpleasant symptoms. It inhibits your body's ability to deal with alcohol.

No need to worry though, the field was also covered in another of the Coprinus family, the Shaggy Inkcap (C. Comatus). Here pictured in all stages of growth, from the small white egg shapped excellent edible younger specimens, to the taller, black, inky older ones.

There were also many patches of 2 other species that need to be identified. That'll be for tomorrow lunch time!

Update: One of the species I didn't recognize appears to be Field Blewit, Lepista saeva.  Will check spore print colour tonight, and head back to collect the young ones tomorrow to be made into Chicken and Blewit pie, recpie curtesy of Rogers Mushrooms

Shaggy Inkcaps from Durham

Sure enough, in the same place as last year Shaggy Inkcaps (Coprinus Comatus), a good edible mushroom, are back in force. :)

Fungal Forays: Greenhaugh and Stonehaugh

Today was our first attendance on some of the Forestry Commission's excellent Fungal Forays with expert Gordon Simpson, and what a nice guy he was. A group of 25 of us met in Greenhaugh and moved to the foray area. Gordon had arrived early and lined up a selection of toadstools to use in an introductory talk. During the trip we saw over 30 species from many many genera, including excellent edibles such as Bay Boletes, Chanterelles, Wood Hedgehog, Wood Blewitts and Slippery Jacks as well vividly coloured inedible and poisonous species such as Plums and Custard, Blood-red Webcap, Fly Agaric and many, many more...

Morning Foray: Greenhaugh First School

Heading to a parking spot just past Redheugh for the foray.

Habitat: Mixed Woodland including, Beech, Birch, Pine

Amanita rubensens (The Blusher)

Amanita vaginata (Gristelle)

Boletus badius (Bay Bolete)

Calocera viscosa (Yellow Stagshorn)

Cantarellus cibaius (Chanterelle)

Cordyceps ophioglossoides (Snaketongue Truffleclub)

Cortinarius sanguineus (Blood-red Webcap)

Elaphomyces muricatus (truffle like host for the parasitic snaketongue)

Hydnum repandum (Wood Hedgehog)

Heterobasidian annosum (Root Rot)

Laccaria laccata (The Deceiver)
Laccaria amethystina (Amethyst Deceiver)
Lepista flaccida (Tawny funnel)
Lycoperdon perlatum (Common Puffball)
Phallus impudicus (Stinkhorn)
Piptoporus betulinius (Birch Polyphore)
Paxillus involutus (Brown Rollrim)
Russula ochroleuca (Ochre Brittlegill)
Russula emetica (The Sickener)
Russula sardonia (Primrose Brittlegill)
Suillus luteus (Slippery Jack)

Afternoon Foray: Warksburn Picnic Site, Stonehaugh

Heading to forest track near Grindstone Syke for foray

Habitat: Coniferous plantation, Spruce, Larch, Pine

Amanita muscaria (Fly Agaric)

Amanita vaginata (Gristelle)
Boletus badius (Bay Bolete)
Calocera viscosa (Yellow Stagshorn)
Clitocybe nebularis (Clouded Funnel Cap)
Cortinarius sanguineus (Blood-red Webcap)
Lepista Nuda (Wood Blewitt)
Lepista flaccida (Tawny funnel)
Lycoperdon perlatum (Common Puffball)
Russula ochroleuca (Ochre Brittlegill)
Russula emetica (The Sickener)
Russula sardonia (Primrose Brittlegill)
Tricholomopsis rutilans (Plums and Custard)

Snippits of wisdom from Gordon I'd like to remember...

"Toadstools are the fruiting bodies of fungi whereas Mushrooms are merely a type of toadstool. Therefore technically we were hunting for Toadstools."

"All toadstools are edible although some of them only once!"

"In Britain there are about 20 good edible species and a similar amount are deadly poisonous. The rest are either edible 'stomach fillers' of little culinary value other than nutrition or poisonous types that cause gastric upsets."

"Don't be afraid to taste toadstools by breaking a small piece off and placing it in your mouth for a few seconds before spitting it out. Note hot, acrid or mild tastes as it is a diagnostic indicator."

Of the edible varietes, we collected a fine set of griselles, a few chanterelles and a shaggy parasol, all of which will be eaten! Many more types of Cortinarius, 'Bonnets', Waxcaps and others were seen at both sites who's names I didn't catch. Despite forgetting my camera, mushroom knife and forgetting to buy a basket, the day was an invaluable introduction to toadstools and mushrooms and incredibly we saw 5 of the 'excellent' edible varieties. Bring on the next foray!

Countryside walks: Derwent bridge to Chopwell Woods

Just out of Rolands Gill on the Derwent Walk I crossed the viaduct and headed left on a public footpath up into Scaife's Wood. Initially a a mono culture of adolescent Beech trees without any sign of fungi. Mature Pine trees in the south eastern corner of the woods hosting Sulfur Tuft, Hypholoma fasciculare (see photo) and a rotting Bolete. (This was worrying as edible Boletes were the object of the walk! Am I searching for them too late in the year?)

Following the footpath through Middle Friarside, Cypress trees were identified next to prefectly ripe elderberries and sour blackberries. (Is the blackberry season over?). Crossing the road at Lintzford and along rejoining the Red Kite Trail, the Hawthorn hedge turned to Blackthorn. The first frost of the year hasn't happened yet so it isn't yet time to harvest the slows, but some of the Blackthorn were covered large, ripe, black sloes(see photo), so it felt only polite to pick half a kg or so to flavour a bottle of gin.

I left the the footpath as it rose up slightly to Chopwell Woods to zig-zag amongst the trees to search for edible mushrooms. Saw more rotten yellow pored Boletes beneath pine trees and an unidentified violet mushroom with gills which didn't look like an Amethyst Deciever (see photo). As I went back to the clearing where we'd previously identified a Deathcap mushroom I had a closer look. There was a good selection of Deathcap-like mushrooms of all ages. On closer inspection of these, diagnostic features became apparent: the slight yellow colour throughout, a consistantly present remenant of universtal veil on accross the cap (remenisent of that on Fly Agaric but with a brown tinge); abscence of an tinge of olive green on any of the the caps; closer morphology to to Roger Phillips photos of this mushroom, I became convinced that infact they weren't Deathcaps, Amantia Muscaria but False Deatcaps, Amanita Citrina. Not mushrooms I feel like getting near to, but it's nice to get a little more experience of the Amanita genus.

After 4 hours of walking it was time to give up so I started to head out of the woods without having seen many mushrooms at all. Then on the grass about 50m ahead I could see a perfect bell shaped mushroom which turned out to be a Shaggy Inkcup, Coprinus comatus. The sloes picked at Lintzford turned out to be the find of the day!

Animals spotted: Grey Squirrel, Magpie, Raven, Wood Pigeon and Llamas!